Political tension

Huberman first visited Palestine in 1929 feeling an internationalist, more
European than Jewish and rather anti-Zionistic, but the mystical atmosphere
he felt permeated the place changed his thinking. He received a tremendous
reception  at sold out concerts he saw people climbing waterpipies
and barbed wire on to roofs in order to listen, and by the time of his second
visit in January 1931 he had formed a vision of creating a Palestine Symphony
Orchestra. The rise of Hitler would soon give this project a real focus.

The depression was causing economic instability throughout Europe. Hungary
introduced severe restrictions on foreign exchange transactions to keep
the value of the pengoë stable, and in November 31 Budapest musical
circles worried what effect this would have upon the scheduled visits of
foreign arists. Hubermans concert manager assured them that he was
willing as were other musicians, to accept payment partly in pengoes &
partly in the form of time drafts.

Even more serious of course, were the political problems. In May 32
Huberman addressed a Viennese audience on the subject of Pan-Europa. The
lecture was attended by the French, Polish and Bulgarian Ambassadors, as
well as prominent Austrian politicians. While admitting that all authentic
art in the end had its roots in national soil, he said a Pan-Europe need
not signify a leveling of national characteristics, but rather a freeing
of their inexhaustible wellsprings of creative power.

Huberman did not see his growing Zionism as conflicting with the Pan-Europa
movement, as he felt the Jews had given the world monotheism, and in his
opinion this was just a step away from the idea of one humanity of
brethren. Later that year he published Vaterland
Europa (Fatherland Europe), in which he wrote prophetically Those
who help us, do not only altruistically but they protect themselves
and their dear ones from the destruction of property, from poverty, from
collective murder, and from their own ruin.

Huberman had played with Schnabel and Piatigorsky for the Beethoven celebrations
in 1927, and the same group with the addition of Hindemith now planned to
give a Brahms cycle for the next years Brahms centenary. When the violinist
and pedagogue Carl Flesch heard that his friend Schnabel was playing again
with Huberman, he was so furious that in December he severed relations with
him. Schnabels musical collaboration with Flesch had virtually ceased
since he had left their trio in 1920, but 12 years on, Flesch still felt
betrayed by Schnabels association with Huberman, a violinist he violently
disliked. Flesch wrote accusingly to Schnabel:

When in 1921 you detached yourself from the Trio, freedom of action
on both sides was the logical consequence. Equally, your choice of partner
is entirely your own affair, particularly since my innate antipathy towards
Huberman might make me appear prejudiced. Nevertheless, I have to say
that during the past few years I became more and more puzzled about your
sudden sympathy for him it is not unknown to me that you have been
contemplating artistic collaboration with Huberman for some time as well
as the fact that you had tried as long as 2 years ago to interest Piaty
in this project what I want is nothing but the termination of our
personal relationship.

Schnabel wrote back If you dont want to see me again, I wont
force myself on you. If you do want to see me  I am here, and you
will meet a friend. Carl Flesch discussed Huberman in his Memoirs.

In September Huberman played with the BBC, and in November his assistance
at the Brahms centenary in Paris under Weingartner who had come from Vienna
to direct, proceeded smoothly enough. The situation in Germany had began
to deteriorate though, as more and more Jewish figures were forced to leave
their posts. Furtwängler told Yehudi Menuhin that musical life in Germany
was going to the dogs.

In April 1933 Adolf Busch quit the Brahms celebrations in Hamburg (Brahms
birthplace) as his Jewish pianist, Rudolf Serkin, was refused permission
to participate. In Berlin the Prussian Minister of Culture prohibited a
series of Brahms chamber music concerts that were to have been given in
May at the Singakademie by Schnabel, Huberman, Piatigorsky and Hindemith.
The quartet, with Casals substituting for Piatigorsky, were able to play
at the May Vienna celebrations under Furtwängler however. The group
gave several trio and quartet performances, and Huberman and Casals played
the Brahms double concerto. Both Schnabel and Huberman had played under
Furtwängler the previous year, and he was anxious to get them back
for future performances in Germany. In April Furtwängler had personally
persuaded Goebbels to grant exemptions for certain Jewish figures, and so
he took the opportunity at the Vienna Brahms celebrations to ask them to
return to Germany for engagements the next season. Schnabel later wrote
of these concerts:

Performances went very well and we had great fun and pleasure at
our rehearsals, with plenty of time. After one of our concerts we went
to a very popular restaurant in the basement of a hotel. There were about
fifty people there besides us. Around midnight, Furtwängler came,
with two friends, and his behaviour seemed planned and prepared. In the
presence of these fifty or more people, he addressed Huberman and me,
asking us once more if we would not change our minds and come back the
following winter to play in Berlin with him. We had been asked before
and refused, of course, to do so, for reasons you can easily guess. Huberman
asked me to answer first. I made it very simple and said that if all the
musicians were called back and reinstated in their former positions, then
I would agree to come back. But if they were not called back, I would
have to stick to my refusal. To my great amazement Furtwängler replied
 and this was obviously not prepared  that I was mixing art
and politics. And that was that.

Huberman explained why he couldnt return to Germany, and then discussed
with Furtwängler the possibility of publishing a public reply declining
the invitation. On 30 June Furtwängler wrote to Huberman asking him
to return to Germany to play with the Berlin Philharmonic and be the first
to break down the barrier. Huberman replied on 10 July from
his summer-home in Italy, giving in writing the reasons he had already given
verbally during the Vienna Brahms festival. After complimenting Furtwängler
on the stand he had taken, he wrote:

 no case has come to my attention of the intended reinstatement
of those museum directors, orchestra conductors and music teachers who
were dismissed on account of their Jewish origin, their differing political
views or even their lack of interest in politics In reality it
is not a question of violin concertos nor even merely of the Jews; the
issue is the retention of those things that our fathers achieved by blood
and sacrifice, of the elementary preconditions of our European culture,
the freedom of personality and its unconditional self-responsibility unhampered
by fetters of caste or race.

After further negoitations through the summer months and with the situation
in Germany declining, Huberman eventually decided to publish his 10
July letter, and in September it appeared in French, German, and American
Newspapers.

Huberman later referred to Furtwängler as that typical non-Nazi
German, who with millions of other non-Nazis made Nazism
possible!

Huberman now had a clearer idea of the orchestra he wanted to form, realising
that its creation could help many Central European Jewish orchestral musicians
who had been left jobless. What had originally been just a cultural institution
for Palestine now also became an emergency rescue for victims of Nazi policy.
In January 1934 he visited Palestine for the third time, and discussed his
ideas with local representatives. After encountering initial resistance
from the governing body of the existing Philharmonic Society, he eventually
overcame petty interests and jealousies, and gained acceptance for his proposal.
Three local committees were set up in Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa to collect
donations, to organize subscriptions, and act as an advisory group.